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First ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ graduates

An initiative to develop industry-ready engineers has seen its first students graduate.

The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (IAME), a collaboration between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing, held a special ceremony to mark three years since its launch and give seven graduates their BEng degree certificates.

They have all secured employment, five of them with firms in the automotive, motor-sport and metals sectors. Other students in the first cohort are continuing to study for their Masters degrees.

IAME (www.coventry.ac.uk/ame) director Carl Perrin said: “This is a fantastic milestone for us, and it highlights how a new approach to developing future manufacturing talent can work.

"We set out in 2014 to create the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ and change the focus of learning to real-life experience of shopfloor projects.

"It’s an approach that has produced much more rounded engineers, who are comfortable operating in a high-pressure working environment and understand the dynamics of being part of a team.

"I’m delighted for our first cohort, especially with the fact that five of them have gone into industry-related positions.”

The IAME is housed in a 1,700m2 purpose-built hub on the Unipart Manufacturing site in Coventry.

It has a team of technology specialists and professors who are working together to develop new powertrain and energy transfer solutions for the automotive, aerospace and renewable-energy industries.